AD #3661 - UAW Strike Losses Near $4 Billion; BYD Catches Tesla in Global EV Sales; Honda Hints at Tesla-Like Assembly

This is Auto Line Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Day nineteen of the UAW strike, and maybe we're starting to see

some progress. After GM CEO Mary Barris slammed UAW President Sean Faine for his

tactics and theatrics, the union finally presented GM with a counteroffer yesterday. GM's

last offer was on September twenty first, so it took the union twelve days to respond. GM says it's evaluating the counteroffer, but that big gaps remain,

so it's likely to reject it. But at least the union responded,

and with news that the UAW also held a new round of bargaining with Stellantis, we're taking this as a step forward. Meanwhile, GM is laying off

about one hundred and sixty workers from non striking plants in Indiana and Ohio which have been impacted by the strikes at the other production sites and parts distribution centers.

And a quick correction. Yesterday I said the UAW was striking GM's Lansing

Grand River facility, but it's actually GM's Lansing Delta Township plant. Ford is

also laying off another three hundred and thirty employees at non striking facilities in Ohio and Illinois. There have been roughly thirty five hundred workers laid off at non

striking facilities between gm Ford and Stallantis. The total number of workers on strike

is now twenty five thousand, three hundred. We calculate the strikers and people

on layoff are costing the union fourteen and a half million dollars a week in strike pay, and the Anderson Economic Group estimates that the first two weeks of the strike resulted in total losses of nearly four billion dollars to the automakers, their suppliers, and their dealers. The struggles at Volkswagen Software division Carread have

been well documented, but it's about to get some help. The VW Group

announced that it hired Sanjay Law, who has over twenty five years of experience in the automotive software field and previously held jobs at Rivan, Tesla and Google.

Law will head up the new Software Defined Vehicle Hub, a new division within CAIAD, and will work with teams from both Volkswagen and Audie. We

think this is a good move for VW. Up until now, the executives

running the software division. We're long time industry veterans, and if you're going

to start a new software company, it ought to be run by software experts from the tech industry. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is significantly expanding its

investigation into Ford engine failures. It's looking into nearly seven hundred and nine thousand

vs equipped with two point seven or three leader V six turbocharged engines, and it's one step closer to issuing a recall. The affected models include the Ford

Bronco Edge, Explore and F one fifty, as well as the Lincoln Nautilus an Aviator, all from the twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two model years.

NITZA blames the engine failures on faulty intake valves. Ford says it's received

eight hundred and sixty one complaints, warranty claims, and engine replacements related to the issue. It also says that the failures occur early in a vehicle's life

and that nearly all the failures have already happened. Ford has made a design

change to the valve to fix the issue. We want to know what drives

you are testing. OTA Connected Car Diagnostics Remote testing Intrepid Control Systems is here

to help you work from an intrepid control systems driven by your data. Tesla's

Q three vehicle deliveries missed estimates. It delivered a little more than four hundred

and thirty five thousand vehicles in the third quarter, which was lower than some of the lowest estimates, but this was a bit expected. Tesla previously warned

that its planned downtime for factory upgrades would hurt deliveries, and investors largely shrugged off the news. Meanwhile, ev startup Rivan did beat sales estimates. It's

a bit of the opposite of Tesla right now. Rivan was able to boost

production in the third quarter and delivered more than fifteen thousand, five hundred vehicles, which is nearly three thousand more units, or a twenty three percent increase from Q two. It also puts Rivian on track to meet its full year

production target of fifty two thousand evs. The startup set it started seeing supply

chain relief in June and is ramping up production of LFP batteries as well as a new in house developed electric motor called Enduro. Chinese automaker BYD has pretty

much caught up to Tesla in terms of pure electric passenger vehicle sales. In

the third quarter of this year, BYD sold four hundred and thirty one thousand, six hundred and three b evs, while as we mentioned earlier, Tesla just edged it out with four hundred and thirty five thousand and fifty nine sales.

That's a twenty six and a half percent increase compared to a year ago for Tesla, but it's a drop of six point seven percent from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, BYD sales represented a sixty seven percent increase year over year

and a twenty two percent boost from the previous quarter. So if Tesla continues

to get hit by production slowdowns, b ID will likely pass it in pure electric sales in the fourth quarter. There's big news in the motor racing world.

Andretti Motorsport was given the green light by the FIA to feel the team in Formula One and Dretti is teaming up with General motors which will develop the powertrain for the team under the Cadillac brand. But even though the FIA or

the International Federation of Automobiles gave Andretti the go ahead, there's still another big hurdle to clear. Now, the rest of the team owners and there's ten

of them, have to give their approval, and they're not too keen on allowing another team to join the series. They're afraid that adding another team will

dilute the prize money and will just add another competitor chasing sponsorship money. Even

so, the FIA will likely put enormous pressure on them because it doesn't want to turn away a historic racing team like a Dreaty or a major automaker like General Motors. Honda is giving us a little glimpse into its future with a

video called Keep Dreaming. It shows it's still working on new technology like urban

flying aircraft and EV talls, as well as fuel cell stacks and autonomous transport vehicles. But the most interesting part to me is this line quote and someday

we'll turn your old Honda into your brand new Honda. I don't know if

we'll ever get to the point where Honda will be able to replace drive components and body panels to make a new car like it shows in the video, but it says to me that Honda is thinking about modular vehicle design and could use a Tesla alike approach to building vehicles, but that brings us to the end of today show. Thanks for joining us. Alto Line Daily is brought

to you by Bridgetone Solutions for your journey, Intrepid Control Systems over the year, engineering boost your game, and by Scheffler We Pioneer Motion. At Scheffler

We Pioneer Motion Electrifying mobility, manufacturing smarter, reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean. Scheffler Pioneer's Motion to advance how the world moves.

AD #3661 - UAW Strike Losses Near $4 Billion; BYD Catches Tesla in Global EV Sales; Honda Hints at Tesla-Like Assembly

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